WWE 2K18 Hands-On Impressions: Game On

Finally I can express my thoughts and feelings of WWE 2K18 with everyone. Past week was extremely epic grabbing a PS4 controller and pressing the options button for what was the most electrifying demo in WWE Games history. We spoke with tons of communities in regards to what WWE 2K18 had to offer between now and October, and it’s a crowd pleaser.

At least in the demo, you could see Seth Rollins performing his new finisher on Samoa Joe on the main menu. After tapping in to what only allowed One on One we had the opportunity of choosing between AJ Styles (89), Barron Corbin (86), John Cena (93), Randy Orton (90), Samoa Joe (91) and Seth Rollins (92). And yes, we played with every last one of them!

Graphics were truly amazing appeared to be years different graphically from 2K17. How this transitioned so fast in one year beats me, but the new lighting engine made the game visually impressive. So to answer one of the most asked questions, does WWE 2K18 look like a rehashed 17? No.

Two side notes before getting into the action: soundtrack and pyro. In the early build there weren’t any music played from the Rock’s soundtrack. Instead it played music from the selectable characters. Personally I enjoyed that a bit more, knowing I am still equally as excited for to hear Kid Rock and others in the final product. Dewayne “The Rock” Johnson’s playlist is possibly the most diversified soundtrack in years to be included in WWE 2K Games.

Though the WWE has moved away from adding Pyro, you still have the opportunity to see and utilize it in the game. Hopefully not the last year though, I love adding that out of nowhere firework show to my entrance.

For many that have asked, Seth Rollins new “Burn it Down” theme song is not available, at least not in the demo. However, every characters entrance was worth watching the presentation. I never wanted to be that “Break Out” guy though the opportunity was there. Every superstar looked more realistic than ever thanks to the lighting engine.

There are new camera angles that bring you closer to the action, especially in-ring. It’s hard to explain (from the demo standpoint) but gameplay felt more personal reintroducing working holds and new animations as well. You could tell right away it wasn’t WWE 2K(17.5).

The pin system has been reworked back to WWE 2K16, removing the input delay from WWE 2K17.  The commentary team audio was in the demo which at least in comparison to 2K17 was less fluid. The years of script added in previous years of 2K is absent and not enough implemented by the new team of Graves, Cole and Saxton.

Gameplay is what mattered, and it was astounding. October 13, 2017, expect the buzzards to be swarming as WWE 2K18 hits stores on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One